04/02/2017

Rental Dementia: 'I'm Moving to a More Welcoming Rental'

Some background -- this person moved into Aztecha, the cheap rentals I maintain with SUBSIDIES at Columbia sim. The are $150/225 prims, which as I've explained, doesn't cover the cost of what I pay Linden Lab myself in tier. I've been saying with one more problem like this I'm just going to dump this community. It's a constant source of problems and isn't even fully rented because of these problems. So I need to think about either dumping it or raising its prices.

Under my rules, you can't have commercial operations of any type, no stores and no galleries no vendors, no breedable pets for sale. Why? Simple. Why should you get to use my CHEAP LAND that I SUBSIDIZE to make a profit in YOUR business?! If there is cash to be made here, I need to make it to PAY MY TIER. So either pay market rates for commercial areas, or don't have commercial activity.

For the second time in a month, I've had some character tell me that their gallery, where they sell pictures or paintings "isn't a store". Or that "only their friends come there". This is patently ridiculous as if they have put their land in search (!) the general public can buy their paintings at a click. They sell their paintings sometimes for more than their weekly rent costs. So why am I subsidizing THEIR business? They can pay the business costs I pay. The end. Pretty simple.

Even so, you get this kind of snarky assholery:

Jaredian Vostok: I am vacating my land and moving on to more welcoming parcels that will allow me and my business partner Chloe to experience all the benefits of SL. Thanks for very little.[18:30] Prokofy Neva: ok thanks for the heads up[18:30] Prokofy Neva: I don't know what you mean by "more welcoming" as you have most freedoms of ownership in my rentals[18:35] Inventory item 'Henry Hutchence Jaredian Vostok' offered[18:35] Prokofy Neva: Sounds pretty welcoming to me

This is a card from a conversation with my son:

[2017/03/06 23:52] Henry Hutchence: Hi, welcome to Ravenglass Rentals! I added you to resident powers, switch to the title 'resident' in the group to acess ban, media, change parcel description etc[2017/03/06 23:52] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.[2017/03/07 06:37] Jaredian Vostok: (Saved Tue Mar 07 06:31:56 2017)great, thanks[2017/03/07 06:37] Jaredian Vostok: (Saved Tue Mar 07 06:36:16 2017)I'm wondering if someone could get rid of the little "flat group joiner". I joined the group and its yellow sign is poking into my house. My house would be a pain to move. Thanks.[2017/03/07 06:39] Henry Hutchence: ok[2017/03/07 06:39] Second Life: User not online - message will be stored and delivered later.[2017/03/07 10:43] Jaredian Vostok: also, can you explain why the about land box has 263 as the total prims and the ad said 375[2017/03/16 17:30] Henry Hutchence: Hi, do you need some help?[2017/03/16 17:30] Jaredian Vostok: your from the rental company?[2017/03/16 17:30] Henry Hutchence: yes, you should IM the managers directly rather than use the group[2017/03/16 17:30] Jaredian Vostok: sorry[2017/03/16 17:31] Jaredian Vostok: yeah, I am trying to udnerstand prim count[2017/03/16 17:31] Jaredian Vostok: I see 263 prims available but the rental was for 375[2017/03/16 17:31] Henry Hutchence: Hi, I don't know if you had a chance to read the info cards sent to you or on site[2017/03/16 17:31] Henry Hutchence: in a group prims work differently[2017/03/16 17:31] Henry Hutchence: you are not limited to the prim limitation of that individual parcel[2017/03/16 17:31] Henry Hutchence: you draw from the group's entire holdings on that sim[2017/03/16 17:31] Jaredian Vostok: oh interesting[2017/03/16 17:31] Henry Hutchence: so just put out your leased amount[2017/03/16 17:32] Henry Hutchence: you will see the total go up under "land impact" and "set to group"[2017/03/16 17:32] Henry Hutchence: management prims like rental boxes or trees do not count[2017/03/16 17:33] Jaredian Vostok: okay, I was just concerned because I was nearing the parcel limit[2017/03/16 17:33] Jaredian Vostok: I just kinda have to honor system it with the 375.. cool[2017/03/16 17:33] Henry Hutchence: well that's irrelevant in a group so just put out what you are leasing[2017/03/16 17:33] Jaredian Vostok: k. Thanks for clearing that up. Appreciated[2017/03/16 17:51] Henry Hutchence: np

So nothing to complain about there. If this person had to wait a week -- they asked it just as Henry was logging off and he didn't see it; I found it on the chat records later -- Jaredian then sent a notecard but I was away so it took awhile) -- to get an answer to their question purely based on suspicion that they were being bilked, I have less and less sympathy these days for that. If a lease AND a land description give you a prim count, you just keep putting out prims, easily established. If you believe there's a hard stop to doing that based on what your past experience, understood but you could either a) test it or b) ask AGAIN. After all, after asking in a notecard, this customer got a quick response.

Just this narrow-eyed nasty suspicion I get ALL THE TIME from renters on the Mainland who imagine rapacious landlords are bilking them and screwing them out of prims because they can't grasp how Mainland group rentals work, despite getting leases and FAQs on site and personally delivered to them. If I see someone is a whopping 11 years old, I don't think they need that explanation.

But I don't think that wait -- which was ultimately fixed -- was the issue at all. The ban on commercial activity was.

You can see this person is a prissy high maintenance type by the way they ask for the removal of a group joiner, put there for their convenience, after years of suffering from people who can't use search/groups or see the group joiner on a post nearby, but need it right next to their rental box. OK, there it is, but yes, they are removed, you just have to ask. You don't have to tell elaborate things about how it is poking into your house and OMGODZORS you are not willing to move your house blah blah. Honestly....

So I continued to educate this person, as they probably missed my group notices explaining about no commercial activity:

[18:36] Prokofy Neva: You can't have a store on my subsidized cheap land because there's no reason why you shouldn't pay the business costs I do. You'll come to understand this : )[18:36] Jaredian Vostok: It was not a store.[18:37] Prokofy Neva: no commercial activity is allowed on subsidized land, your rent in Aztecha does not cover my tier to Linden Lab[18:37] Prokofy Neva: the end[18:37] Jaredian Vostok: and we've left[18:37] Prokofy Neva: putting up photo galleries and pretending they aren't a business and then telling me you're moving to start a business : )[18:37] Prokofy Neva: yes I've removed you from the group[18:38] Prokofy Neva: You've been in SL 11 years, so it's kind of late to be sucking down starter lots paid for by other people but whatever Jaredian, I realize you're determined to "teach me a lesson". Bye!

I have commercial lots roadside that cost a little bit more than these subsidized rentals. And I also have a rule that if you are in the non-subsidized areas, you can put a gallery or yardsale or whatever in the sky and sell from there. But a cheapskate like this isn't willing to move into a $165/225 prim rental, they want to put you in the wrong claiming you are not "welcoming".

This is why I publicize such things. It is bad behaviour, and it is wrong. I don't care if that person never rents from me again, or their friends, or even others who don't like "my attitude".

PS I've noticed that in one area where I finally just faced down a complaining asshole who thought she had veto on whoever moved in next to her if she didn't like their pets, or they terraformed her land even a smidgeon, and finally just told her to cut it out or leave -- that I now have the area fully rented. My God, I accommodated that complainer and her friend who anchored that sim for more than five years and as a result, the parcels next to them never got rented. I am too kind.

The perfect can be the enemy of the good. I finally faced down those high-maintenance complainers. Yes, it meant a month or so without the rent but I didn't want to sell. I waited, and now it is entirely filled up with people who don't complain but appreciate what they have. They turn over, others come in, and don't complain. MOST PEOPLE are not complainers. MOST PEOPLE are good, follow rules, and don't create problems. I'm happy to wait for them : )

Comments

You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.

You are mentioned here:

Bakioglu, Burcu S., Off with the Rule Book: Using Transgressive Storytelling in Virtual Worlds to Weave the Lore of Mayhem (May 1, 2015). Closed Systems / Open Worlds, 2015. Available at SSRN: ssrn.com/abstract=2615597

It was around that time that Second life welcomed to its platform a slew of universities who hoped to experiment with the educational possibilities of virtual worlds. One of them, Woodbury University, took an unconventional approach. Instead of merely conducting virtual classes as most conventional institutions did, it encouraged its students to explore the culture of Second Life.

In addition to using the 4chan memes and lore, they adopted a full-blown Soviet theme in their sims as a send-off to Prokofy. To be sure, the end game was to appear to confirm Prokofy’s conspiracy theories linking the group to a higher communist regime.

This way, the Woodbury group played with the overall perceptions that were associated with the griefer persona creatively, spectacularly, and subversively.

The Woodbury contingency was quite bitter about the group bans that had been hastily dished out without proper investigation or due process, based solely on the claims of JLU, causing them to lose their virtual land and creative content.

At the face of what they saw to be injustice, a group came together under the name The Wrong Hands. Comprising of members of Woodbury, W-Hat, and V5, they assumed the role of digital rights activists (Bakioğlu, 2012)

So a griefer professor -- an academic who admires griefers and thinks they are merely "transgressive" instead of *criminal* -- says *I* am a conspiracy theorist, and therefore that is to be believed. Why?

I've never linked this group to any "higher communist regime". This "professor" would be hard put to find anything remotely resembling this claim.

I've made several other, more subtle points that apparently fly over the head of this griefer prof and reader:

1. The griefer professor who was "mentoring" and ENABLING the criminal Woodburies, Prof. Cliff, once went to St. Petersburg to read a paper on leftist economics. To be sure, this was in the post-Communist era. But it suggests that he may have more than a passing fascination with communist ideologies. Of course, you can go to St. Petersburg and read papers about Reagonomics, for that matter. But he did't. BTW you can't find this reference any more on the Internet.

2. Quite aside from any communist regime as such, there is a pattern whereby when I am attacked in RL by Kremlin trolls, some of whom still have the National Bolshevik or Communist ideology as an inspiration, I'm often *also* attacked in SL.

3. I've made the more subtle point that the ideologies of Anonymous, 4-chan, the alt-right and so on have features of authoritarianism and even totalitarianism in them, and Bolshevik "the end justifies the means" sort of ideology. That doesn't mean they are "the same thing" as Soviet Communism which has specific features.

The Communist memes this group adopted didn't come from me or my "conspiracy theories"; it came from their own admiration of this system, and/or a belief that they can do "send-ups" of it like pewdie pie does of Hitler, and pretend they don't share any of the features or ideological beliefs of that system they supposedly "ridicule".

There aren't any group bans that were "hastily dished out". If you repeatedly crash the Lindens' sims with your script antics, if you repeatedly steal content, if you repeatedly harass other users in a variety of ways -- and it's hardly only about me -- you are banned for TOS violations, the end. There are no "transgressions" here by Linden Lab, but application of the TOS justly.

The Wrong Hands aren't "digital rights activists" but assholes pretending to be this as another form of griefing. There are no "rights" wronged here in banning a set of assholes who griefed people and grossly violated the TOS as to copybot and scripts. The end.

Part of their method of griefing involves snowing and co-opting liberal media and academics into portraying them as victims. If any of these liberal or leftist journalists or professors experienced even five minutes of the treatment that these griefers meet out to others and pretend is art, they'd make quick work of their previous theories. "Transgressiveness" is something you can always enjoy when applied to other people you don't like for ideological reasons. Experience it yourself, and you may start to realize the problem, as the liberals in the DNC have about Russia, and as the left in general has about the alt-right in the Anonymous/4-chan cohort.